The theme for 2011 is simple – Inspirita (Kerry-Ann Stanton)

This year is (what’s new?) a complex year. My desire and my challenge are to keep it simple, to come back to that which is mine.

So how to keep things simple when mounted on Dr. Dolittle’s Pushmi-pullyu?
(A “gazelle-unicorn cross” which has two heads (one of each) at opposite ends of its body. When it tries to move, both heads try to go in opposite directions)

Examples in life for me of the Pushmi-pullyu are the tensions between:
 learning and earning
 reflection and action
 doubt and faith
 really any duality that you or I can think of!

Where does spirit fit in all of this? The spirit is very good at fitting in with us as best it can, when much of the time we are distracted from it.

But it is always present and reveals itself:
 in the little voice that reminds me that I haven’t packed my PA and IPod as I drive off in a state of distraction to run a voluntary dance session
 in the serendipity of unexpected encounters that have me laughing or crying
 in the ‘dreams’ that sustain me
 in the feedback people choose to gift me – the helpful, the discouraging and the real
 in the beauty of nature around me this glorious summer
 in the core connections that sustain me

A complex year lived simply seems to require my perseverance with those practices that support a life integrated with spirit; dance, meditation, time with family and friends, work with sufficient meaning.

I am sitting with several lines from her paragraph on Staying (p.57): “Ironically, we find the strength to stay by realizing that there’s nothing we can accomplish by staying.”
“And there we are, still in the middle of the river, hoping to be ready for what’s next.”

How this speaks to me is my need to keep going, without attachment, just because – and because as best I can call it, I am ‘on purpose’.

Inspirita says it all for me – my place to return to each time. As an Inspirita I seek to enthuse and enliven myself and to take that energy out into my life and work with others.